Two more wildfires break out on the Margallas

CDA’s firefighters quickly overcame the blaze

ISLAMABAD: Two separate wildfires broke out on the Margalla Hills on Monday.

The two incidents of fire were reported in two different areas of the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP).

The first incident was reported at Chatri Morr near Daman-e-Koh. The fire started over a small patch at around noon on Monday.

However, firefighters from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) environment wing, with the help of the authority’s Emergency and Disaster Management Director (E&DM), managed to put out the fire within half an hour since the spot was within the reach of CDA’s fire brigade.

CDA officials are of the view that some visitors had chucked a lit cigarette stub at the spot which caused the fire to break out.  The second incident was reported in Military Forest-11 (MF-11), a forest located near Pir Sohawa, at 6pm. The fire quickly spread to cover over three to four acres of forest.

The forest in this area mostly comprises scrub forest, bushes and grass.

“It is generally known as the military forest because the army used to cut grass from this area before transporting it down to Rawalpindi,” a CDA official told The Express Tribune.

He added that when dry, grass and scrub forests make for ideal tinder material and are hence prone to catching fire. Such areas, the CDA official warned, will catch fire frequently amid rising temperatures this year.

Asked about efforts to combat fires in the hills, he said that CDA’s firefighting teams overcame the two fires which broke out on Monday very swiftly.

The CDA officials anticipated that local residents could be involved in these incidents, since every year CDA hires around 400 villagers to extinguish infernos during the fire season from April 15, to July 15.

But this year, the CDA decided not to hire local residents.

“The finance wing has approved funds for the hiring of locals on daily wages and hopefully we will hire their services on Wednesday,” CDA Environment Wing Deputy Director Akhtar Rasool told The Express Tribune.

This was the fourth wild fire incident at Margalla Hills since March 29, 2018.

The fire incidents on Margalla Hills have become regular events during the summer and autumn fire seasons due to the presence of dry grass and flammable bushes.

Generally, fire incidents at Margalla Hills occur during the driest months of the year including May, June, November and December. But this year, the fires sparked off before the peak summer season when grass and trees at Margalla Hills are verdant

Due to the rough terrain, it is nearly impossible to control the situation through conventional fire extinguishing vehicles and the CDA staff uses indigenous and manual bush beating technique to control the fire in accessible areas. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2018.